to give people a better sense of their world

Monthly Archives: April 2018

Popular local YouTube channel, Night Owl Cinematics, or NOC, has posted a panel forum in Mar 2017, two years after GE2015 where the PAP won 70% of the popular vote, and took back Punggol East SMC from WP hands.

While the channel is largely politically neutral and friendly to all sides of the political spectrum, it is more leaning towards the left and pushing boundaries in its own way. Albeit putting up a disappointing video in 2015 featuring ‘memory’ for the late LKY.

In this forum panel, NOC panellists tell us why the govt – in which the PAP has been the ruling party since the beginning of our nation’s history – makes our people easily offended.

Some excerpts:

Sylvia: Are Singaporeans easily offended?

All 3 panelists: YES!Sylvia: Where does this stem from?Dee Kosh: Government.Nicholas: Education system.Aiken: Both.Nicholas: Yeah, the government is the education system.

Dee Kosh: Censorship is a huge issue. Censorship of the media, censorship of what we can or cannot say in print.

Aiken: The competitiveness of pitting us against one another, it’s the same reason why we look down on service staff, or jobs, because we are pit against one another. And the driving culture, in other countries you can feel the friendliness of a horn, but in Singapore even if you let off the slightest horn..

Dee Kosh: And social media and the internet is shaping this country, because we don’t have a proper media outlet. And yes, MediaCorp, I am calling you a not proper media outlet, because they are not talking about the issues, they are not pushing the boundaries, and because of that, the internet is doing it for you, and that’s why we’re a bit slow.

A Yuying Secondary School ex-student – together with his then-schoolmate – charged at and cornered their teacher, Ms Wong (transliterated) after she tried to take photos of them and the debris he left behind after kicking a rubbish bin over. This was after the teacher found the group of boys, which included Tan, upon following a trail of smoke scent in school, and after he shouted at the teacher to stop yelling after denying smoking yet blowing his breath at the teacher. Ms Wong resorted to locking herself up in the science lab nearby while calling out for help.

Then-17-year-old Tan Kai Xian (transliterated) faced 5 charges in the state court on Saturday, for offences including trespassing into the staffroom, and harassment, among others.

Smoking incident

On 28 Feb 2017, Ms Wong had detected smoking scents while she was on the corridor at the 4th storey of the school. She followed the scent and was led to a group of students including the accused. Tan denied the smoking, but blew a breath of air towards Ms Wong after sipping some green tea from a bottle.

He then hollered at Ms Wong, “Shout what shout, no need to shout, okay?”, and then kicked and toppled a rubbish bin along the corridor.

When Ms Wong wanted to take pictures of the debris, and of Tan and Shanik, another boy at the scene, the duo tried to flee. However after a while, the two of them turned back to charge at Ms Wong. Ms Wong was terrified and ran to hide in a science lab within the vicinity, and shouted for help until someone came. It was not known how long the ordeal lasted.

Ms Wong was traumatised by the incident and it is understood that she does not dare to stay up too late in school for fear of attacks by other students in revenge.

Barging into the staffroom premises

In another incident, Tan also barged into the staffroom and rummaged through a teacher’s desk in search for his phone which was kept as he left the afternoon assembly for a toilet break – a usual practice in the school.

This was after he had returned from the break 45 minutes later, and was unhappy that the teacher failed to return the phone immediately and said he would return it to him at a later time.

Assault

He also beat up his schoolmate at a void deck in the Hougang area after the victim ignored his request for a fight, which he was ‘yearning’ for due to his bad mood from police investigations.

A man got so fed up with the way he was treated by one police officer (the others in the police team were alright) that he resorted to put out a bounty for the PO involved, and the taxi driver who was at the heart of the issue – who allegedly refused to take him and his girlfriend (who was tipsy) on board even after he politely asked 8 times.

While we do not condone his gangsterish behaviour of putting out bounty, the said police officer’s behaviour were not less gangsterish – and smacks lowly of a professional disciplined force that should serve to protect the people – not intimidate them.

Nevertheless, the supposed rich guy later took to EDMW forums to apologise:

He also alleged the police officers to have ‘sided with the sexual harrassment’ of his girlfriend in terms of the ‘sexist’ remarks from the taxi driver.

I know of this uncle who always likes to go to this hawker stall. The stall owner is very rude to him and many other customers. And the food is deteriorating. But because the uncle has been patronising the stall since young, he has some form of attachment to it. Even though it is no longer the original owner selling, but his son, who has a totally different business style and philosophy.

Some people have started buying from other stalls, particularly the one right next to it that sells something similar but with much better business attitude and service.

But the uncle has been strongly campaigning for the original stall, saying we should not ‘forget who brought us here’. He also keeps telling people there is ‘no real alternative’ to the original one – the only ‘A-Team’ there could ever exist. And many nod their silly heads in agreement.

Those queuing at the other stall ask him: “Do you really like the stall so much? Do you really trust the stall to give you the best?” He replies: “Of course not, I am suffering every day with the food and service that is going from bad to worse.” Indeed, every day he is complaining right after ordering the food from there.

“So why do you keep patronising it?” “Because the hawker centre would fall if this stall falls! We cannot let this stall fall. It represents the hawker centre and the hawker centre represents it.”

The other fellows behind him agree in unison: “Yes, we cannot let this stall fall!” “It represents us, our hawker centre, our way of life. I cannot imagine one day without it.” “Not good, but no choice. The hawker centre would fall.”

Indeed, the stall has a high stake in the whole hawker centre and controls the stall arrangement and seating plans of the entire hawker centre. The wife of the owner, Makethemsick, also owns the taxi fleet that transports people to the hawker centre.

“But we the customers can petition to transfer the share ownership over!” “The hawker centre belongs to us, not to Makethemsick!” Retorted the other stall’s patrons.

“Open up the books! Make things transparent!” “Free up the market! Let us compete fairly!” The other ‘crazy’ patrons are getting impatient.

Wardens then had to step in to warn everyone that protests are illegal in the hawker centre.

Hawker centre management reminded everyone they can write in to The Hawker Times to air their views. Or they can set up their own stalls if they want to, and ‘compete fairly’ – although there are quotas on how much resources the other stalls can get from the hawker centre management.

The next day, hawker centre management also came in to announce that all dissenting views ‘with no evidence’ and threaten ‘hawker centre security’ will thereafter be labelled as ‘fake news’, after giving a 6-hour lecture on how dangerous such ‘news’ is to a hawker centre.

“You can still say things and write things,” assures the management, “but we get to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. What’s real and what’s fake.”

“Can I ask a question?” A brave soul speaks up.

“We are not here for you to ask questions. You can write in and we will process your opinion.”

He told siblings he was ‘busy’ and will settle it after the elections. His siblings then let the elections pass with no event. But it seems he has convened a secret committee to overturn his own father’s wishes right after.

Like a child crying for mummy, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday told Parliament how his siblings had ‘issued him an ultimatum on the eve of’ GE2015, saying they would go public with their dispute with him if he did not carry out his father’s wishes to demolish the house of 38 Oxley Road.

They set a deadline of Sept 1, Nomination Day for the 2015 General Elections that happened on Sept 11 in which the PAP managed a landslide largely attributed to LHL’s milking of LKY’s legacy.

PM Lee told Parliament that his siblings “wanted him to undertake to help them” get the house knocked down.

This even when we now know – through his siblings – that his father wanted the house knocked down, and he is not yielding to the father’s wishes although he tries to frame it as “my siblings want me to”.

He then tried to feign hero by saying he was “not prepared to be intimidated on the eve of the polls.”

“I told them I was very busy, and they would surely understand I had a lot on my plate. I would respond as soon as the elections were over, which I did,” he said.

But if one follows the LWL and LHY side of the story, one would know that LHL had convened a secret committee to undertake LHL’s wishes to keep the house against his father’s wishes that was later known to us as the “Ministerial Committee” that LHL claims he has no control over.